It wasn’t enough that Paul Bersebach and Carrie Turbow climbed Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states at 14, 496 ft, a week and a half ago.What took place as they began at 3am on the trailhead, at 8,362 ft, sparked an idea at about 10,000 feet and matured at about 13,000 feet.

The plan was a go at the top and as Beresbach explains it, Turbow signed off on the project exactly there at the highest point at 14,496 feet; there sitting on a rock, Turbow, responded with a simple “yes” to his marriage proposal.

“Well, you know I had thought about it and it was in the back of my mind when we started….at 10,000 feet, I really started thinking about it and at 13,000 feet, I knew it was a good idea…we were sitting on some rocks, actually at the highest point on the summit…I was low key, I said some things first, like what she meant to me and then asked her and she calmly said “yes” …I expected her to cry a little and so when she didn’t, I asked her if she was going too…she said no and then a few moments later she let go a little…”

They took their time coming down after spending about half an hour on the summit.They didn’t get back to the trailhead until 11pm or so.

“We really took our time and stopped along the way…it’s probably why we weren’t very sore…still though, 18 hours on the trails…”

The Whitney climb is 8,362 ft of elevation change in 10.2 miles, from trailhead to summit, for a total of 20.4 miles.That would be like walking from San Clemente to South Coast Hospital in Laguna and back and half of it uphill.You have to carry your own food and although they had a fine day for the ascent, you still have to carry the gear for the odd storm that could blow through.Don’t forget that you have to filter water every little bit of distance as well.That’s a lot of ingredients for one great day.

It seems to me that it was worth it; two separate people went up and a single unified one came down.